How Is the Solar Return Different From Our Birthday, and Why Is It Important?

by Robert Wilkinson

Since my Solar Return happens in about 21 hours, I thought I’d offer you something about why this is the most important Solar event in our year. While it doesn’t override other influences such as progressions and transits, it does give us a snapshot of what our year to come will look like.

I’ve published what you’re about to read in the distant past, and so rather than re-invent the wheel, today you can take a new look at the basics of what the Solar Return is, and how it relates to our birthday. We all get one Solar Return each year, and it’s a great time to envision how you would like your coming year to manifest.

Over the years I've heard many wonder about the Solar Return chart and its importance in showing events in the year that follows that point in time. Is it the same as our birthday, and if not, what is the difference?

The Solar Return is a chart done for the moment the Sun returns to the exact point it occupied at birth. It is calculated for wherever we are at that exact moment, which is why we have some measure of control over what is on the angles of the chart.

The planetary positions are fixed in time, so we have no ability to manipulate the aspects, since they hold true regardless of where we are. Also, I only use equal houses in the Solar Return chart since years ago I found that you can get some very precise timing from that system.

Because it is based on the moment the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute, and second of longitude of our natal Sun, it's the precise point in time when we can re-tune "the Great Instrument!" It can happen the day before our birthday, the day of our birthday, or the day after. It all depends on where we are.

For example, if it happens at 11 am in Santa Monica, then it happens at 2 pm in New York, 7 pm in London, and 8 pm in Amsterdam. Each of these changes the degree (and often sign) of the Ascendant, which in turn affects the signs on the house cusps and what houses the planets occupy. That affects everything from where the rulers of our natal houses fall in the Solar Return chart to where the rulers of the Solar Return houses fall in that chart.

That's the primary difference between the Solar Return and our birthday. The birthday is the same each year, but the Solar Return changes each year depending on where we are, and is an exact point in time.

Besides the Ascendant changing across time zones, there are often significant differences even within a time zone. For example, Santa Monica and Spokane WA are both PST, but though on the same time, they have different ascendants due to their relative latitudes and longitudes. The same is true for Austin TX, and Madison, Wisconsin. Both CST, but very different degrees on the angles even though their clocks read the same time.

Last year I shared my personal meditation I do each year at the time of my Solar Return. It's an extremely good thing to meditate at the Solar Return, since our inner Sun is aligned with the outer Sun, bringing our heart Light/Life into attunement with the Cosmic Source of our Light/Life. As this is a general form, please adapt the ritual as you need to.

If at all possible, find a really peaceful or powerful place, like a park, lake, or power point in the area where you can still the body and the mind. Of course, if you have an altar, that is a great place to open to the greater Light available at the Solar Return.

It's important to enter into meditation at least 15 minutes before the moment of the Solar Return, since that allows you some time to "get out of your own way." This meditation is specifically Light/Heart centered, so focus on opening to a greater receptivity that this is the moment of the "return of the Light" to your Life.

As you enter deeply into the receptivity of merging your individual Light with the on-going Greater Light, move into and stay centered in your heart. It is the source of all knowing, all illumination, all love, and all power in an individual life. Surrender and let go of your ego mind and your feelings, open to the highest and greatest Light you are and always have been, and allow the on-going greater light to illuminate your inner light.

If you can, please try to hold this meditation at least 15 minutes after the Solar Return moment, since this can help "fix the energy" in your various subtle bodies. (No, you don't have to reference your watch to make sure you're "doing it right.";-)) This attunement for 30 minutes can make all the difference in what follows in the days, weeks, and months after, since it sets up a pattern of alignment and attraction that can open us to "knowing" that transcends our mind.

Because I like as much information as possible about the "meaning" of the year to come, I also consult various "oracles" at my Solar Return to offer me symbols of what my next year will concern. Sometimes I do this before the meditation, other years afterward.

Examples of these symbolic messengers are the I Ching, Tarot, Angel cards, Animal cards, and other means to get a sense of the quality of the next year. Sometimes they indicate what I can expect, and/or what I am learning, and/or what tools I can use to move and groove through the next 12 months.

Mostly I suspect that due to synchronicity, these show me symbols of what's happening within me that will ex-press in the year to come. Occasionally they indicate external patterns, but again, these can never be separate from our power to choose which patterns we will embrace and which ones we'll ignore.

So by all means, remember to calculate your Solar Return chart to get insights into what's been, what is, and what will be. If you want to explore the subject of the Solar Return chart in greater depth, please check out The Solar Return and How It Relates To our Birthday, since it's an in-depth look at many things I haven't covered here about this important moment in time that happens to everyone once each year throughout our life.

My solar return this year has Venus exactly conjunct (down to the minute, 15 degrees 45 minutes) to my natal Sun. I am feeling it to be an auspicious day. A little concerned about the Moon-Pluto conjunction square Uranus but it seems a sign of the times. Maybe it depends on one's definition of auspicious?

Hi Robert having followed your thread and insights for a while now and having learned some valuable info. I'm quite delighted you touched on the subject of SR's. Now there seems to be some controversy over aimed SR's. Celeste Teal is strongly against it, she says that the moment you return to your place of residence the return for the place of residence takes over. She has set out to prove this using my SR chart for Aug.19 1997 where I spent my Birthday in Corfu Greece, compared to the one for Ottawa, Cananda where I reside. That year in Oct. I met a man from Buffalo N.Y. I won't go into details but it was a fairytale romance, we got engaged by Christmas and in Feb. 1998 went to Greece to celebrate Valentines. That evening Feb.14 he suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Celeste published both charts the SR for Greece and the SR for Ottawa Canada. The one for Ottawa where I reside tells the story. So I'm not sure about Aimed SR's. Like Celeste says you can run but you can't hide. I would be interested on your opinion and your thoughts since I am a student of Astrology and every bit of info. is valuable to me. Thank you.

Hi all - Thanks for the wishes. Yes, "auspicious" is in the eye of the beholder. As for "aimed SR charts," I have found them completely accurate over the decades I've done them. The thing about SR charts is that we do not read them as we would a natal chart per se; we look at where our natal rulers of the various houses fall in the SR chart.

The SR chart is a frozen moment in time. We can only be where we are. I tend to progress according to natal birth place since they are symbolic measurements. I look at transits relative to where we are since that's a "real time" circumstance. The SR is a transit moment; that's why wherever our body and breath happen to be is where the chart is done. I have found that changing locations, and therefore changing the degrees on the angles and often the house positions, exactly indicates the experience of the year too many times to dismiss it simply because one astrologer asserts otherwise.

One conundrum to what Celeste asserts: I am doing my SR at my residence in NM; I am about to change residence to another state in the near future, but will be going back and forth between residences. I've always had two, and sometimes three residences simultaneously. Surely the picture (and therefore patterns) of a past frozen moment in time cannot miraculously shift simply because I change what state I happen to be in at any given moment. If so, then our life patterns and responses are entirely conditioned by where we are. I do not believe we are that influenced by outer conditions.

What is in the past and written is already part of frozen time; we cannot change the past simply by changing locations in the present. If we experienced the death of a loved one at a certain place and time, we do not change our orientation toward that death simply by moving to a different location, though that orientation will be modified over time due to our internal movement. We do take ourselves wherever we go. A point of resonance affects the pattern of consciousness; that impression doesn't change simply because we move from A to B after the imprint has occurred.

A logical corollary to her assertion would be that though your college graduation happened at a certain moment in Austin, Texas, that by moving to Los Angeles 25 years later it made the chart of the Austin experiences derived from that graduation irrelevant, and that a more important indicator would be a chart for graduating in LA. Or that a marriage initiated July 13, 2005 in Santa Monica would somehow change qualities to mirror those to where you moved days, months, or years later. That doesn't make sense.

Remember that a Solar Return is an inceptional chart. It is a chart for a specific event at a specific place in time. Those qualities are in that chart because it actually happened at that time. It didn't happen anywhere else. And to note, the SR is only one influence, and is heart centered. We also have Lunar returns, Mercury returns, Venus returns, and so on. I'm sure the death was clearly shown by other factors than just the moveable SR. Also look at the rulers of your 8th and 12th, since the 8th is the 4th from the 5th, and the 12th is the 8th from the 5th (The 5th rules love affairs.) Perhaps the previous returns of the planets ruling these houses would also show the death.

Do I understand correctly, you're talking about the 31st of March? If so, we share the same solar return! :)) Many, many happy returns Robert, thank you for everything you share!
I'd like to ask you something. As you may have noticed from your chart also (:D) I'm in the middle of a Pluto - Uranus transit to the Sun.
Add to that, a solar return Sun (in the 5th) square Moon (in Cancer, my natal ASC, in the 8th) square Pluto (in the 2nd). Yes, that also means Moon opposite Pluto. And Scorpio ascendant, just in case the message was not clear enough.
Now, I do have Pluto opposite the Sun natally, this energy is not new to me. But I do worry about the solar return Moon getting involved in all this... and would like to hear a word from you on what kind of outward manifestation these patterns might point to and, more importantly, how to work positively with all this intensity.
Have a great time today and always.
Love to you and Bernadette,
Shanti

Thank you kindly for the info. and your thoughts, it is much appreciated as I'm very open minded and like to get different opinions and methods, and knowledge before I draw conclusions. I try to gather as much knowledge as I can and then incorporate it into my studies. Since I have great respect for your insights and knowledge, I decided to take the chance to ask.
I thank you
Sophia

Robert: A most wonderful Solar Return and Happy Birthday to you. It appears that La Luna is close to your natal ascendant, and in a waxing phase. Keyword for First Quarter moon is Action, but I suspect you are moving into the Gibbous phase, key word is Expression. So you are poised to have a more prominent voice in these turbulent times that are hard upon us. I am very grateful that you are taking this journey with us. Namaste. Hari Aum. Mitakuye Oyasin.